German lawmakers on Friday approved speeding up a 20 billion euros (US$18 billion) tax cut by a year and trimming jobless benefits in the battle to revive Europe's largest economy, giving German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder a boost as he seeks unpopular changes in the welfare state.
Schroeder, who left a EU summit a day early for the debate in parliament's lower house, said the result was evidence his squabbling center-left coalition "stands together when it comes to modernizing Germany."
"We need the ability to take action demonstrated here in order to give our country a good future," he told reporters.
In a tense buildup to Friday's vote, Schroeder softened some of the proposals to break dissent among left-wing defenders of the welfare state inside his Social Democratic party and secure his coalition's majority in parliament.
Schroeder launched the limited overhaul of cherished social programs in March with unemployment soaring, the economy in a third year of near-zero growth and his approval ratings in a slump.
Schroeder faces resistance in the opposition-dominated upper house, where his conservative foes have said they will seek changes to toughen the measures.
With its bill to move up the tax cut to Jan. 1 from 2005, the government aims to give the economy an immediate boost.
The lower house also approved measures to increase pressure on the unemployed to take jobs or risk a cut in benefits, changes designed to lower payments for the long-term jobless, and an overhaul of the government's nationwide network of job placement offices to cut bureaucracy and improve job placement.
All are meant to combat a jobless rate stuck above 10 percent, and Schroeder has staked his future as chancellor on winning final approval for the package by Christmas.
Economics and Labor Minister Wolfgang Clement told parliament he hoped the government's overall labor reform efforts would cut the number of jobless by as much as a fifth.
Kouri Richins, a Utah mother who published a children’s book about grief after the death of her husband is to serve a life sentence for his murder without the possibility of parole, a judge ruled on Wednesday. Richins was convicted in March of aggravated murder for lacing a cocktail given to her husband, Eric Richins, with five times the lethal dose of fentanyl at their home near Park City in 2022. A jury also found her guilty of four other felonies, including insurance fraud, forgery and attempted murder for trying to poison her husband weeks earlier on Feb. 14, 2022, with a
‘PERSONAL MISTAKES’: Eileen Wang has agreed to plead guilty to the felony, which comes with a maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison A southern California mayor has agreed to plead guilty to acting as an illegal agent for the Chinese government and has resigned from her city position, officials said on Monday. Eileen Wang (王愛琳), mayor of Arcadia, was charged last month with one count of acting in the US as an illegal agent of a foreign government. She was accused of doing the bidding of Chinese officials, such as sharing articles favorable to Beijing, without prior notification to the US government as required by law. The 58-year-old was elected in November 2022 to a five-person city council, from which the mayor is selected
DELA ROSA CASE: The whereabouts of the senator, who is wanted by the ICC, was unclear, while President Marcos faces a political test over the senate situation Philippine authorities yesterday were seeking confirmation of reports that a top politician wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) had fled, a day after gunfire rang out at the Philippine Senate where he had taken refuge fearing his arrest. Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, the former national police chief and top enforcer of former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte’s “war on drugs,” has been under Senate protection and is wanted for crimes against humanity, the same charges Duterte is accused of. “Several sources confirmed that the senator, Senator Bato, is no longer in the Senate premises, but we are still getting confirmation,” Presidential
HELP DENIED? The US Department of State said that the Cuban leadership refuses to allow the US to provide aid to Cubans, ‘who are in desperate need of assistance’ US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday said that Cuba’s leadership must change, as Washington renewed an offer of US$100 million in aid if the communist nation agrees to cooperate. Cuba has been suffering severe economic tumult led by an energy shortage that plunged 65 percent of the country into darkness on Tuesday. Cuba’s leaders have blamed US sanctions, but Rubio, a Cuban American and critic of the government established by Fidel Castro, said the system was to blame, including corruption by the military. “It’s a broken, nonfunctional economy, and it’s impossible to change it. I wish it were different,” he told
RSS